Sami Khedira has been offered to Manchester United this summer on wages of £200,000 a week. Of course he has. There will be more than a few agents who recall United’s largesse from a year ago and fancy a slice of that.

This time, however, it has to be different. If United are in the market for a Real Madrid player, there should be only one name on the list. Were they to break the bank again, it must be for Gareth Bale.

If Bale moves this summer — and it is by no means guaranteed — Bale wins the league for his English club next season. It really is as simple as that. If he signs for Chelsea, Chelsea retain the title; if he signs for Manchester United, Old Trafford claims its first championship of the post-Ferguson era.

The same with Arsenal — even Manchester City, if they hold on to their Champions League place. This is the Robin van Persie transfer all over again — and the managers know it, too.

Gareth Bale would lead Manchester United to the Premier League title if he returned to England from Madrid

Bale had a glorious first season but he has come under fire in recent months from Madrid media and fans

Sami Khedira has been offered to Manchester United for £200,000-a-week, but would he win them the title?

Back in 2012, Roberto Mancini was furious at Manchester City’s failure to sign Van Persie from Arsenal. Equally, he was wary of the impact he would have at Manchester United. And he was right. Van Persie won the league that season. Had he signed for City, Mancini would have kept the league title. Instead he went to United, helped Sir Alex Ferguson knock City off their expensively acquired perch and Mancini was fired.

The Italian may not have been the most popular figure at the club by the time of his departure, but he knew his football. Midway through the campaign he acknowledged Van Persie’s arrival as the deciding factor. ‘He changed their season,’ he said. ‘He is the difference between us.’

Manuel Pellegrini does not have Mancini’s confrontational edge but one cannot help but think there was a coded message in his insistence that City must land at least one major signing this summer. ‘Big teams need to sign a big player,’ he said, before Monday’s defeat at Crystal Palace. ‘It is important — not just at Manchester City but at Real Madrid, Manchester United, Chelsea, Bayern Munich.’

Pellegrini wasn’t naming names, obviously, but how many individuals of that ability come on the market each year?

Robin van Persie was sold to Manchester United from Arsenal and claimed the title in his first year

Roberto Mancini was all-too aware that Van Persie was crucial to the destination of the title

Bale is an upgrade on Luis Suarez, who was banned from playing for Barcelona until October

Take summer 2014. Would Pellegrini place James Rodriguez, Toni Kroos, Angel di Maria, Alexis Sanchez, Cesc Fabregas or Diego Costa in that category — or is he thinking purely of Barcelona’s acquisition of Luis Suarez? If he is, then Bale is an upgrade even on that deal, considering he is not encumbered by suspension or a predilection for taking a light opponent-based snack in the middle of a game.

Bale can define the Premier League title race in a way he cannot influence La Liga because of Lionel Messi. The Argentine is the best in the world right now and ever more potent beside Suarez and Neymar. Frankly, Bale isn’t even the best player at Real Madrid, given the presence of Cristiano Ronaldo, scorer of five goals against Granada in a 9-1 win at the weekend.

Yet in England, with the possible exception of Eden Hazard, Bale would stand apart. In partnership with Hazard, Chelsea would be close to unstoppable; yet Manchester United will feel the same if they can reignite the threat of Bale and Di Maria on the wings with Wayne Rooney down the middle. Bale, David Silva and Sergio Aguero at Manchester City; Bale and Sanchez at Arsenal?

At every club, Bale would be the key, the player who takes them to another level. Sadly, if Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur do not make the Champions League next season it would not be worth even entering the auction. City, too, for that matter.

Eden Hazard is comparable to Bale and if the two played together, they would be a fearsome duo

Hazard has been in scintillating form for Premier League leaders Chelsea and looks set to win the title

Bale celebrates his vital goal in last year's Champions League final which put Real on course for the Decima

One theory is that Manchester United have the ultimate bargaining chip in David de Gea. Real Madrid need a goalkeeper and if De Gea is intent on leaving why not offer him as part of a bid for Bale? After all, De Gea has been magnificent this season — arguably the Premier League’s best — but he is not irreplaceable. If he leaves, United could do worse than offer Chelsea £10million for Petr Cech.

Yet Cech could also feature in any Chelsea raid for Bale. Might Real Madrid be equally interested in him, and for less than half De Gea’s price? For that matter, would Manchester City be prepared to part with Joe Hart if it meant securing Bale? The only elite English club without a world-class goalkeeper to offer Real Madrid would be Arsenal — yet does anyone see them being part of this battle anyway? They should be — particularly with Bale’s Welsh team-mate Aaron Ramsey such an important part of the team — but they won’t.

Real Madrid recognised Bale’s potential two summers ago, and have been handsomely rewarded. Without doubt he helped them to their 10th European Cup win. He is a player who influences. Does anyone think Wales would stand on the brink of winning their European Championship qualifying group if Bale was not part of the team?

Khedira makes a team stronger; Bale makes them champions. Mancini knew that about Van Persie; and they all know who makes the difference this summer, too.

David de Gea has been in magnificent form this season and could be used as a bargaining tool

De Gea is a former Atletico Madrid player, but their cross-city rivals are desperate for a goalkeeper

Petr Cech is no longer wanted by Chelsea, but could he too play a part in a move for Bale?

Selling stars will set Spurs back 10 years

Daniel Levy reportedly told the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust that after the problems reinvesting the money received for Gareth Bale, future transfer policy would entail the purchase of young players, priced between £10-15million with good potential for resale. This may be financially sensible, but it is hardly reassuring.

Elite clubs, those who challenge for the biggest trophies, do not buy with one eye on selling and this strategy would set Tottenham back a decade to a time when they helped solve problems at Manchester United by trading top performers such as Michael Carrick and Dimitar Berbatov.

Tottenham sold Michael Carrick to Manchester United in 2006 and it set the club back a decade

Even the goals of Harry Kane have not been enough to give Spurs a place in the Champions League spots

Indeed, the only time Tottenham demonstrated real Champions League potential was when Levy resisted the likes of Chelsea over Luka Modric. The moment they started to sell again, Tottenham fell away.

Not even having the Premier League’s top goalscorer in Harry Kane has placed them among the elite again — and it is hard to see how that will change if this is the plan. Nobody overtakes Manchester United by offering a helping hand — no matter how favourable the price.

Predictable future for Saints

It will soon be back to reality for poor old Southampton. And the reality is — well, more of the same. Another summer fighting off the predators; a summer hoping that the club owners do not believe what happened this season can be casually repeated.

Ronald Koeman has done a fine job in challenging circumstances but he will not be able to pull it off twice.

Southampton lost five key players a year ago, bought well and thrived, but that is not a blueprint likely to succeed on repeat.

The club benefited from a very specific set of circumstances. Koeman was a new manager who saw the break-up of the team as an opportunity, not an insult. He walked through the door and was presented with a significant transfer budget. There was no gloom around the place; it was a fresh start.

Ronald Koeman has done a magnificent job at Southampton but the club is once again braced for poachers

The likes of Morgan Schneiderlin (centre) and James Ward-Prowse could be targeted by bigger clubs

This summer it will be different. Southampton were unable to last the pace but as recently as February 20 they still occupied a position in the top four. Koeman will be anticipating the possibilities if his squad remains intact and he adds to it; another round of rebuilding is a morale-sapper. When will it end?

Already there has been speculation around Nathaniel Clyne, Morgan Schneiderlin, Toby Alderweireld and Jay Rodriguez. It is not unthinkable that a new arrival such as Graziano Pelle or a promising youngster like James Ward-Prowse could also be on the radar of the bigger clubs. This is the downside of Financial Fair Play.

Southampton should be able to build from here. Their thriving youth policy, their acumen in the transfer market should equate to an investment opportunity — a chance to change the traditional status of the club.

Instead it is the same old, same old, Southampton the feeders, abandoned to fight off the raids of the established elite.

It would have been wonderful had they held on for a Champions League finish. It wasn’t to be and while UEFA continue to see football as a glorified branch of accounting — Mike Ashley at Newcastle United must be Michel Platini’s hero — it never will be, either.

And while we’re at it...

The image of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg on board a private plane to Mercedes headquarters in Brackley may have been a PR ploy but it marks a change in the relationship between the pair.

The summit was to discuss tactics before the next grand prix in China — and it is unlikely either man will be given the freedom to simply race any more.

It is fine for drivers to go head to head when there are no challengers but after Ferrari’s win in Malaysia Mercedes must now function successfully as a team.

Hamilton might not have liked what was coming over his radio through the curves in Kuala Lumpur but one imagines he will be hearing a lot more of it from here.

Austin’s club is no issue... England just have better options

If Charlie Austin played for a big club he would be in the England team by now. That’s the populist stance, anyway, and parroting it is much easier than working through the logistics.

If we think a squad should contain four strikers, who should Roy Hodgson drop to make way? Wayne Rooney, the captain, poised to overtake Sir Bobby Charlton as the greatest goal-scorer in England’s history? Danny Welbeck, the top scorer across this European Championship qualifying round, with six goals in five games? Harry Kane, English football’s leading goalscorer — or Daniel Sturridge, the man whose partnership with Luis Suarez almost propelled Liverpool to the title last season?

Every few years an England manager must ride this accusation of big-club favouritism. Remember when Grant Holt of Norwich City was thought to have been unjustly ignored by Hodgson in 2012? Not hearing so much of that since his career nosedived into the Championship, and probably League One, with Wigan Athletic.

Charlie Austin took his tally to 17 this season in his first year in the Premier League and may well get a call-up

Grant Holt was talked about as playing for England but his career took a nosedive into the Championship

Austin is different from Holt, whose finest form came towards the end of his career. He will probably move on from Queens Park Rangers at the end of the season and may even earn an England call-up then. Critics will say it is because he now plays for a fashionable club. That isn’t true.

Austin has had an excellent year but England have goal-scorers who are in even better form, or have earned their place in the squad. Make no mistake, if he was playing this well as a right back or centre half, he’d have made his debut long ago.

Best show at Augusta on Tuesday? Miguel Angel Jimenez’s stretching routine on the practice tee, 10am local time. The cigar, only marginally smaller than his driver, did not leave his lips the entire time.

Miguel Angel Jimenez (left) holds a trademark cigar with one hand and puts the other on Jose Maria Olazabal

Diego Costa limping out of the win over Stoke City was widely interpreted as a severe setback for Chelsea. Not necessarily.

Costa has had a brilliant debut season in English football. His 19 goals have outstripped the 16 scored by Didier Drogba in his first campaign — indeed Costa would have outscored Drogba in six of the eight seasons he has completed at the club.

Diego Costa was struck down with a hamstring injury after coming on as a sub in the win over Stoke

Costa trudges off with Chelsea in pole position to win the title with Loic Remy champing at the bit

Yet it is inescapable that there is a marked difference between Costa’s form in the first half of the campaign and the second. After a blistering start he has now scored just two goals in his last 10 matches.

Loic Remy, by contrast, is in decent nick. He has two goals in two games, and two goals in his last three starts. It may not be the worst time to give him a run in the first team. Certainly, they will be only too aware of the threat he represents at Queens Park Rangers on Sunday.